


Getting the Upper Hand

by HeavyHeartstrings



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Fluffy, M/M, Post KH III, Sparring, short and sweet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-08
Updated: 2019-03-08
Packaged: 2019-11-14 00:22:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,239
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18041891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeavyHeartstrings/pseuds/HeavyHeartstrings
Summary: Axel wasn't expecting to be able to hold his own in a spar against Roxas, but after getting knocked down so many times he gets a little fed up.





	Getting the Upper Hand

Axel grunts as he blocks a blow from Roxas, bringing his arm up to support the other end of Oathkeeper as the force pushes him back just a bit. He parries the attack and swings back at the blond with a swift movement, grunting as Roxas leaps back with a quick, light jump. When he lands, he touches his free hand to the ground to support his balance and looks to Axel with a smug smirk.

The redhead swallows thickly and forces himself to ignore the spark in the blond’s eyes that ignites something within Axel’s chest, not pausing and rushing towards Roxas to try and strike again. The blond doesn’t try to dodge his attacks this time, raising Oblivion to block the swift attacks and then shifts forward to catch Axel’s ankle with his foot. The action sends the redhead falling forward on his chest with a hard landing, the impact taking his breath away and making him drop his keyblade.

“You lunged again.” The blond comments from above him, staring with a remorseless expression.

Axel grits his teeth, pushing himself up and grabbing the blond’s keyblade as he stands up. He stares at Roxas for a moment as he brushes some dirt off of his clothes, biting back a witty comment on the tip of his tongue. He falls into a ready stance again, watching Roxas do the same. There’s always something challenging in the blond’s eyes when he prepares to fight, but today it seems more energized, more enticing. The redhead takes a big breath as he watches Roxas for a moment, but the blue-eyed teen doesn’t seem like he’s going to initiate the first attack, so Axel moves forward with a diagonal slash.

Roxas grips Oblivion with both hands, watching the redhead’s movement and blocking the attack with ease. He takes a step backward and Axel advances towards him to close the gap, swinging the keyblade and watching Roxas parry the assault once again. The blond takes slow steps backwards as Axel continues to attack until the redhead raises the keyblade with both hands over his head, attempting to land a hard blow in his frustrations of not being able to get a hit. Roxas turns his body out of the way with nimble movements, watching as Axel’s weight shifts forward with his attack and trips him once more, sending him landing on his back this time with a pained sound.

The wind is knocked out of Axel as he hits the ground, wheezing silently as he tries to catch his breath. After a few seconds he seems to have regained it and sits up with an exhausted grunt, glancing at Roxas who is standing a few feet away with Oblivion resting in one of his hands at his side.

“Don’t let your enemy lead you.” He criticizes with a frown.

Axel falls backwards against the ground with an exasperated sigh. “Roxas, I’m bruised and battered at this point. Can we call it a day?” He pleads, his muscles sore and beginning to ache.

The blond purses his lips at the redhead in an unimpressed manner. “No wonder Kairi beat you all the time in your training.” He mutters, rolling his eyes.

Axel sits up sharply, ignoring the pain in his abdomen as he does so. Roxas landed a good hit on him there earlier when the redhead proclaimed the blue-eyed teen was going easy on him. He instantly regretted saying it after Roxas’ keyblade sent him tumbling back and rolling a few times as he met the ground.

“Harder enough for you?” The blond had proclaimed.

Axel simply grunted in response, deciding it was best if he just kept his mouth shut.

He knew that agreeing to train with the blond wouldn’t have been a walk in the park, but he also didn’t expect for Roxas to take such _pleasure_ out of kicking his ass. Even now as he glares at the blond for his comment, he can see that Roxas isn’t bothered in the slightest and his lips are curled up to one side in a smirk. There’s definitely something charged in the air that the both of them feel, making the redhead bite his lip.

“I should have never told you that.” Axel murmurs, shaking his head.

The blond chuckles quietly. “No, you shouldn’t have,” he starts. His voice becomes serious again as he continues. “Now get up, we’re not done until you can land a hit on me.”

The redhead groans loudly, standing up once again and panting heavily. At first when Roxas asked him to spar, he imagined it would just be with practice swords or perhaps even Struggle bats as they were in the Sandlot. But then when the blond had summoned both of his keyblades and held Oathkeeper out to him, Axel stared at the blade with a confused expression.

“Xemnas destroyed your keyblade, right?” The blond asked quietly. When the redhead simply nodded, Roxas inched forward to emphasize his gesture. “Then use one of mine.” He stated simply.

His action made Axel stare at the short blond in a trance for a moment, before he nodded and accepted the keyblade. It felt light in his hands compared to his old one, but he knew the damage it could deal from witnessing and experiencing the blond’s fighting.

“Can I have a potion at least?” Axel whines before they start sparring again.

Roxas rolls his eyes, reaching into a pocket and throwing the small bottle to him. The redhead catches it and gulps the liquid down heartily, feeling the magic begin to work its way around his body. It doesn’t make him feel a hundred percent or anything, but he feels more energy coming back to him and the pain from Roxas’ attacks fade significantly.

He can’t be too mad about the way Roxas fights him relentlessly. Part of Axel still feels guilty about everything he did back in the Organization, how he lied to Roxas and failed to keep him and Xion safe. The blond had reassured him that he had no grudges held against Axel, but the redhead’s thoughts kept denying his words. So in a way, even though getting knocked around by Roxas was painful to both his body and ego, he was willing to accept it as his own sort of atonement to the blond.

This time Roxas advances at Axel first, raising Oblivion in one hand as he jump strikes at the redhead. Axel grunts as he uses his strength to block the blow, hearing the clashing sound of the two keyblades meeting. He releases his pressure against the blond’s keyblade and jumps to the side in an attempt to counter attack. Roxas matches his speed though, turning his body and bringing his keyblade up to defend himself. He shifts his weight and makes a move to thrust his keyblade forward at the redhead. Axel manages to just barely dodge the quick movement and dashes to the side again. This time he thinks he might actually be able to land a hit, pulling his arm back to deliver a blow-

But Roxas simply ducks the horizontal sweep, then knocks the redhead down with a counter attack to his feet. Axel feels them leave the ground and then once again he’s landed on his back with Oathkeeper dropping from him hand. This time, the keyblade disappears and Roxas gives the redhead a deadpanned expression.

Axel just stares up at the blond from the ground, feeling his chest heaving quickly and his skin hot with sweat. Roxas looks like he’s barely used any of his energy, which annoys the redhead.

“Why you gotta trip me every time?” Axel asks with heavy breaths.

Roxas shrugs a shoulder, retracting his keyblade and crossing his arms. “Would you rather me actually knock you down with the keyblade again?” He asks.

The redhead closes his eyes and shakes his head, laying spread out like a starfish. “I’d rather not face your wrath anymore. I think you’re going to break all of my bones.” He complains.

The blond rolls his eyes, walking close to the redhead and squatting down next to him. He hovers a hand overtop of Axel’s chest, murmuring a Cure spell and the redhead watches the green lights of the magic surround his body. It’s much more effective than the potion, healing him instantly and nearly shivering as the magic runs through his veins to repair the wounds on his body.

Roxas’ eyes are on his as he casts the spell and Axel is almost certain he sees something flicker over them as the redhead is healed. He looks like he wants to say something, but the blond stays silent, his eyes revealing more than his lips. When the magic has worked its course, the blond stands back up again and turns his back away from the redhead.

Axel sits up and stares at him, wondering what the blond is thinking. Since he’s come back, Axel has noticed how mature the blue-eyed teen has become. It wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, but the redhead wasn’t used to it yet. Back in the Keyblade Graveyard when Roxas appeared and saved them all, Axel felt like he was a whole other person as he stood with his keyblades in hand ready to fight.

His silence makes the redhead frown slightly, so he stands up for the umpteenth time and opens his mouth. “I almost had you that time.” He comments.

Roxas turns his head to the side, a small grin set on his face. Then he turns fully to stare at Axel and crosses his arms. “Almost doesn’t mean anything.” He retorts playfully.

Axel holds a hand to his chest in mock hurt, secretly pleased when he sees the blond’s grin grow despite him rolling his eyes. “Against you it does.” The redhead adds, giving him a wink.

He’s surprised to see that the blond’s eyes widen for a moment before he turns away again. Then a smile comes to Axel’s face. Was Roxas embarrassed by that compliment? He can’t help the excited feeling that spikes in his chest at the thought. He walks towards the blond and halts when he sees Roxas summon his two keyblades again. He turns to the redhead quickly, tossing Oathkeeper to him.

Axel almost grins ferally, having to purse his lips to contain himself from doing so. He sees the way Roxas’ notices and the blond huffs quietly, furrowing his eyebrows at the redhead. Axel wonders if this might be an opportunity not worth passing up.

He lets Roxas make the first move, the blond charging at him with a determined look in his eyes. Axel decides to fight defensively for the time being, taking precautions by dodging and blocking the blond’s continuous assaults. He feels like he’s beginning to catch on to the blond’s fighting style, though it isn’t enough for him to be able to figure a way to break through it. He gasps in shock as Roxas’ keyblade misses him by a few inches, Axel just barely being able to dodge that attack.

He knows that he can’t keep the defensive state going, because Roxas very clearly has the better stamina over him and will eventually catch him off guard. So in the next moment when the blue-eyed teen swipes at Axel with a horizontal slash, the redhead grips Oathkeeper as tightly as he can in one hand and angles it vertically to stop the blow. As soon as the keyblades make contact, Axel strides forward close to Roxas and uses his free hand to reach forward and grab a hold of the front of the blond’s shirt. Roxas looks down at his hand in surprise and back up to Axel’s eyes in a swift moment, not having time to react as the redhead leans down and presses their lips together in a chaste kiss.

Roxas freezes at the action, giving Axel the split-second opportunity he needs to knock the blond’s keyblade from his grasp and to the ground with a loud clang. Roxas blinks in surprise, first at Axel, then at his keyblade lying on the ground and back up to Axel. Then his face is suddenly flushed completely red and his eyes become angry.

“You…you _kissed me!_ ” Roxas sputters out in disbelief.

His reaction makes Axel bite his bottom lip as he grins. “Sure did. I’d do it again too.” He purrs, leering at the shocked blond. Seeing him riled up and flustered like this feels familiar, like the Roxas he knows.

Now the blond’s mouth is hung open in shock, so Axel drops his keyblade to the ground too and uses the now-free hand to tap under his chin lightly. “You’ll catch flies looking like that.” He murmurs playfully.

Roxas closes it and swallows thickly, his face still flushed red in embarrassment as his eyes stare into Axel’s. He looks like he’s experiencing many different things right now, unsure of how he should react to the current situation. The redhead decides to back off for a moment, releasing his hold on the shorter teen’s shirt and stepping back.

The blond reaches out with both of his hands to grab the collar of Axel’s shirt, pulling him back in close. “Do it again.” He commands with a quiet, yet stern voice.

Axel chuckles lowly, obeying the blond’s command and leans his head down to do as he’s told.


End file.
